Starting Your Own Flower Garden: audio file (audio file opens new window)

When you buy a house you want to have a wonderful garden where children can play and you can sit back and unwind. A garden is one place where we feel we are one with Nature and enjoy the small pleasures of life. But without potted plants and flowers, a home garden is incomplete. Before you choose the plants to grow in your home garden, walk around the neighborhood and take note of what kinds of plants are being planted. That will give you an idea of what grows well in your area.

When planning your garden, be aware of the bloom time of the flowers. Planting perennials with different bloom times near each other will insure a garden that has blooms all season long. Remember also to plan for the height of the plants, putting the taller ones in the back.

Bad conditions or wrong nutrients can keep flowers from growing well and may even kill them. Areas that don’t drain well or where water pools after rain should be avoided when planting. A soil with a pH range of 6.0 to 7.4 is best for most annuals. Before you start work with your garden beds, test the pH with a home soil test kit and add lime sulfur as required to put the pH in its proper range. After the pH is in the proper range, spread 2 to 3 inches of compost, and cultivate it at least 8 to 12 inches deep.

Annuals in your perennial garden are something to think about! Annuals give you season long color, easy propogation, they’re cost efficient, and provide first season interest. If you’re just starting a perennial garden annuals are a great choice to fill in gaps. I remember my first garden. I bought a couple of plants thinking “This is gonna be great!” A few weeks later I realised this wasn’t true. I needed a whole lot more plants and they cost a bunch! I opted for some annuals and I had a really pretty garden by the seasons end. Annuals can certainly help to fill in a garden while you wait for perennials to mature.

You need to select healthy plants if you’ve decided to grow annuals this year. Many people choose to grow their annuals from seed. Others choose to purchase their plants from green houses. While both ways are acceptable, always remember; You must choose carefully if you’re buying from a green house. Usually, garden centers are happy to share their information about soil, sunlight, water, and wind shielding requirements for each plant with their customers.

Deep green plants should be sought out; spindly plants in cell-packs have been stored there too long and should be avoided. It is also wise to check for signs of disease by examining the leaves and stems and removing the plants from their pots to check the roots. Roots should appear firm and white, and contain no spirals or kinks.

When planting flowers, it is important to remember to follow the instructions on the tag for the plant. Always buy plants that will thrive in the conditions in which you intend to grow them. A plant that loves sun will not do well in a shady area and you will only be disappointed with the results.

Bulbs also work well in a perrenial garden. When your bulbs finish blooming your perrenials are just ready to get started and they’re now filling in the spaces and hiding the soon to be dormant foliage of your bulbs. This is a great way to extend color in the garden for a good 6 weeks.

Summer bulbs can be used to fill in areas that need color when perrenials have finished. Keep in mind that most summer bulbs do need to be dug up and stored over the winter. The good part is that next season when you replant them you can totally redesign with them.

Naturalized bulbs look beautiful in a wooded setting. You can plant them and leave them to multiply. After the bulbs bloom the foliage will die down, but you can interplant bulbs with ground covers for a carefree and beautiful garden. For a natural look you should arrange your bulbs informally. If you toss them and plant them where they land, with small adjustments for spacing, it’ll look much better than if you arrange them.

If you need plants that will do well growing against a wall there are many choices including clematis, wisteria, climbing hydrangea, golden hop and star jasmine. Clematis is a variety that produces purple/blue bell shaped flowers and fern like plant life. Wisteria is a hardy climbing plant that boasts lilac colored flowers that grow in the shape of beans. My personal favorite climbing plants are the star jasmine, which produces leather like, dark green leaves and beautiful white blooms that have an unmatched, abundant perfume.

Planting wild flowers in your garden, or simply scattering wild flower seeds around an area of your yard are both ways to take advantage of Mother Nature’s treasured gifts. Wild flowers are carefree, colorful, and tend to attract bees, butterflys and birds. So planting wild flowers not only gives you an easy maintenance flower garden… it also promises to be a constant source of interesting activity throughout the year.

Follow these simple bits of advice and keep your garden in glorious bloom all summer long.

Growing Flowers for Beauty and Cutting: audio file (audio file opens new window)

To create your own flower garden, start with a sunny spot in your yard. A garden spot that gets 6 to 8 hours of direct sun a day is ideal. It should be within easy reach for watering, since a cut flower garden will need daily watering during any dry spells. You’ll also want to design it to make it easy for you to reach all the flowers in it, so a raised bed that can be approached on four sides is perfect. If you decide to plant against a fence or as a border, make sure that you can get to all the plants without stepping on others by putting in footpaths or trenches for walking.

The best way to start your garden is with bulbs planted in the autumn. Daffodils and tulips are among the most popular spring bouquet flowers. By getting them in the ground in the autumn, you’ll be able to start cutting early in the spring.

Naturalized bulbs look beautiful in a wooded setting. You can plant them and leave them to multiply. After the bulbs bloom the foliage will die down, but you can intersperse bulbs with ground covers and other perennials for a carefree and beautiful garden. For a natural look you should arrange your bulbs informally. If you toss them and plant them where they land, with small adjustments for spacing, it’ll look much better than if you arrange them.

Perennials are the basic flowers for any garden. Each year they die and renew themselves for the next growing season. They are long-lived and last for many seasons. Perennials are also, historically, among our oldest plants. They have been cultivated for centuries and often, as a result of breeding and crossbreeding, bear no resemblance to their wild forebears. In some of the perennials, the blossoms have become so specialized through centuries of cultivation that they no longer grow ’seeds.

Annuals are also of use as a filler between shrubs set some distance apart. This permits the shrub to grow, yet prevents too stark an appearance. The sowing of annuals, of course, depends upon the class to which they belong. The hardier flowers, such as larkspur, poppies and cornflowers, can be profitably planted in late fall. The ground preparation must be just as careful as for spring planting.

Flowers can add a perfume as well as a visual aspect to your outdoor area. You may choose climbing plants that flower each year. These will take several years to reach their full potential but once they do they will create climbing plants of color on a gazebo, a fence or even up the side of a house. If you are looking for a variety that will provide lots of color, try the blue trumpet vine. This climbing plant blooms from autumn through summer and has bright blue flowers on a twining stem.

There are a number of ways to solve the problems of short-flowering periods and the resultant unsightly spaces. One way is to intersperse perennials with annuals and other bulbs and flowering plants whose bloom occurs either later or earlier than that of the perennials. Some perennials are easy to transplant: chrysanthemums, for example, can be moved from one place to another with no noticeable effect on their vigor. This is another way to keep color and bloom throughout the growing season. A garden of perennials, either by themselves or mixed with annuals and other bulbs, should be placed along a path, or as a border, with a background of trees, shrubs, a wall or fence.

The background shows the brilliant coloring to best advantage. Some varieties can flourish in the shade, such as anemone, lily of the valley, day lilies, sweet pea, primrose, hollyhock, harebell and peonies, but these flowers must be chosen carefully and faced so that some sun reaches them every day.

Roses are an entire subject of their own, but they deserve special mention when discussing cut flower gardens. Rambling and climbing varieties of roses are especially suited to cut flower gardens, putting out masses of blooms and responding to cutting with even more flowers. Trail a rambling rose along a wooden fence rail and you’ll have sweet smelling roses for your bedroom dresser all summer long.

Bleeding Hearts – heart shaped, pink to rose flowers needing moist soil and partially shaded location.

Chrysanthemums – single, semi-double, and double flowers in all colors but blue. They need moist well drained soil and full sun location.

Crocus – blooms in early spring, though there are varieties that bloom through autumn

Delphiniums – very tall flowers of many colors, though, mostly blue needing moist, well drained soil and full sun location.

Geraniums – easy to grow flowers of many colors needing mostly any soil type and full sun or partial shade location.

Giant Flowering Onion – grows 3 to 4 feet tall, with huge purple blooms. Great as a back border in a cut flower garden. Blossoms from mid-spring through early summer

Hosta – showy flowers with bright foliage from 4 inches to 3 feet. They need moist well-drained soil and, partial to deep shady location.

Hyacinth – tall clusters of blossoms that are stunning in arrangements. Pink, blue, purple and white, they grow up to 12 inches tall. Bloom in early to midsummer from fall planting.

Lupine – large spiked 3 to 4 foot tall flowers of many colors needing a cool location.

Phlox – soft pastel flowers, some with a contrasting center, ranging from low lying to tall flowers needing moist soil and full sun or partial shade location.

Rudbeckia – yellow, daisy like flowers with contrasting centers needing any soil type and full sun location.

Windflower – also known as anemone, with daisy like deep pink and white flowers, booms through midsummer

Early in the spring, you can start planting gladiolus. These huge, showy blooms are a mainstay of cut flower arrangements, and come in just about every color imaginable. Gladiolus bulbs can be planted as early as two weeks before the last frost. If you plant a new set of gladiolus every two weeks, you’ll have cut flowers from early summer all the way through the first frost.

In early spring, you can also plant your annuals. Snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias all bloom at different times during the summer, which will extend your bouquet season into the fall. Don’t forget to include filler flowers in your cut flower garden. Foliage grasses and flowers like alyssum, baby’s breath, and Queen Ann’s Lace can fill spaces in your bouquets and add a lacy, delicate touch to a vase full of flowers.

These simple bits of advice can keep your garden in glorious bloom all summer long.

Pruning and deadheading are essential to proper rose care. There are nearly as many opinions about how and when to prune as there are roses in need of pruning. While seasoned rose gardeners have their favorite tried-and-true methods, this article is geared toward new-comers who are unsure where to start. As time goes by, you may feel the urge to modify these techniques or even develop new ones of your own. Great! If it doesn’t kill your roses, go right ahead.

Rose pruning isn’t as complicated as some people make it out to be. In fact, there are only 7 basic rules. If you keep these in mind whenever you pick up your pruning shears, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful bushes that reflect the care that you put into them.

Basic Pruning Rules

1. Always remove any dead or decayed growth. This keeps your bushes looking good and denies disease and insects a place to call home.

2. Always keep the center of the bush free of growth. This denies insects a place to live, and allows good air circulation to avoid fungus infection.

3. Remove crossing branches to promote stronger growth.

4. Shape your rose bushes as they grow. This will change them from wild and wooly to prim and proper, as all good roses should be.

5. Always using sharp pruning shears.

6. Clean the shears after each use to remove any disease or fungus spores.

7. Seal the cuts you’ve made on canes to keep out disease. Regular Elmer’s glue works fine and it is cheap.
After pruning paint all major cuts with a sealer in order to aid in healing and to help keep out insects and diseases.

Rose bushes that are not pruned can grow into large tangled messes with small and inferior blooms. The following should allow you to grow an attractive well shaped and sized bush with large lovely blooms.

Try to make all cuts down to a cane or if necessary down to about one quarter inch from a strong outside bud union or eye, the eye is where new growth stems from.

Do not cut canes straight across. All cuts should be at an angle of between 40 to 65 degrees. Always make sure that the shear’s cutting blade is on the lower side of the cane in order to insure a clean cut. This way any injury to the plant will be on the upper part of the cane which will be discarded.

More Pruning Rules

1. Prune from the ground up. Most people start at the top and this can harm the rose and it uses your valuable time.

2. If it’s old, gray and scraggly looking, cut it off.

3. If there are canes that are growing directly over the center, use your pruning saw or loppers and cut flush with the cane. Also remove any canes that are really crowding each other. Now you are ready to continue pruning.

4. When it comes to height remember this: mentally divide the cane into three equal parts and get ready to remove the top one-third. First, however check on the outward facing bud. It should be located at the intersection of the cane and a leaflet of five. There should be several and if possible find one that faces out.

5. If you have doubts, cut it off. If it’s smaller than a pencil it will only produce even smaller stems. For the larger canes be sure to seal with a drop of plain white glue like Elmers. This will prevent the borers from eating your plants.

6. Get rid of all remaining leaves. This will allow for new leaf growth and prevent fungus infections from the old ones.

7. When pruning, remove all suckers as these grow from the root stock which is different from the grafted bush and may eventually take over and kill the bush.

8. The next step in pruning your roses is to take a wire brush and scrub off the woody material on the bud union. Be careful to avoid brushing off any new bud eyes. This is also supposed to stimulate and provide room for new canes from the bud union.

9. Finally, finish your rose pruning by cleaning up all the dead stuff you’ve cut away. Get rid of all the old petals and pull the weeds from around the rose bush. This will help to eliminate fungus and insect problems. Finish up by placing new mulch around the rose bushes.

Correct shaping makes for a lovelier bush and allows for appropriate air circulation which makes for a healthier plant. Proper pruning is easy, and it is the key to a happy, healthy rose garden. Enjoy your beautiful roses.

Pruning your roses is one of the more important and intimidating tasks that goes with proper rose
care. It takes a steady hand and the proper procedure to ensure the best possible growth for your rose bush.
Pruning your roses is basically the act of getting rid of dead and damaged pieces, and teaching the new growth to
grow in the correct outward facing direction. That just means that you are training them to grow facing the outside
of the shrub or bush. This gives your roses the correct amount of circulating air to thrive in.

Rose pruning isn’t as complicated as some people make it out to be. In fact, there are only a few basic rules. If you keep these in mind whenever you pick up your pruning shears, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful bushes that reflect the care that you put into them.

Rose bushes that are not pruned can grow into large tangled messes with small and inferior blooms. How much you prune depends on what you are trying to accomplish and on how well established the plant is.

Do not cut canes straight across. All cuts should be at an angle of between 40 to 65 degrees. Always make sure that the shear’s cutting blade is on the lower side of the cane in order to insure a clean cut. This way any injury to the plant will be on the upper part of the cane which will be discarded.

Hard Pruning — Cut canes back to 3 or 4 buds from the base or the bud unions. The end result will be strong canes about 4 to 5 inches in length. This pruning technique works best with new hybrid tea, grandiflora, and floribunda varieties. You should not do hard pruning with established bushes because they may not recycle. The only exception is as a last-ditch effort to revive sick or neglected bushes.

Moderate Pruning — Cut strong stems back to approximately half of their length. Weaker stems may be cut back even more, if needed. This technique works well with established gardens of floribundas, hybrid teas, grandifloras, and tree roses.

Light Pruning — Cut the canes back to around 2/3 of their length. After all the unwanted “wood” is removed, any remaining stems are “tipped”. Light pruning is not usually recommended for most bushes, because it tends to produce early blooms and poorly developed flowers. Use this technique only if others are not working and the bush is an eyesore.

Pruning at the right time can be just as important as how you prune. Bushes should not be pruned until they begin coming out of dormancy. This can be as early as January in warm weather areas to as late as April in very cold areas. In colder areas do not prune un till all danger of frost is past.

Here is a list of the proper techniques to guide through the pruning process.

* Soak your pruning shears in equal parts of water and bleach. This will help to protect your roses from diseases
and insects.

* Pruning in the early spring, just after the snow melts is best. However you want to do it before any new growth
appears. The best time would be when the buds are swelled, or red.

* Hand shears are the best tool for pruning the smaller branches. (about 4 1/2 inches thick) Loppers are best for
the branches that are thicker or the thickness of a pencil. This will make it easier. You should use a heavy pair
of rose gloves to avoid the thorns.

* You want to get rid of the winter protection that you set up like cones, burlap, and mounded soil.

* You want to get rid of the dead wood first. (That would be the black wood that is black inside as well as out).

* Next, you want to get rid of the thinner wood, which is the stems that are thinner than a pencil.

* Cut all of the branches that cross or overlap one another because these are often diseased or will become so.

* Keep the remaining five healthy branches. These are often dark green. You will want to make your roses fluted or
vases shaped, with an open center, and keep them from touching or overlapping each other.

* Cut your healthy canes to be about one to four feet long, or whatever size that you prefer.

* Cut you roses properly so that they stay healthy. Cut so that the bud is facing outside of the bush and at a 45
degree angle that slopes inward so that you can keep promoting the outward growth.

* You should use bypass pruners that work like scissors and not the anvil types because the anvils crush the stems
and make the roses more available to diseases.

Proper pruning is easy, and it is the key to a happy, healthy rose garden. Enjoy your summer roses.

Roses have long been a favorite among all types of gardeners, and roses continue to enjoy great popularity today. In addition to their beauty as cut flowers and in bouquets, roses are among the most useful and attractive flowers to grace the landscape of any home.As a matter of fact, the exterior of any home can be made more graceful and more inviting through the use of wonderful landscape roses. Choosing the right ones, and ensuring that they compliment the overall style of the home, is very important to the overall success of the landscape.

There are literally hundreds of types of roses that you can grow in your garden. With such a selection to choose from, it can be extremely difficult to choose the rose that’s right for you. To make this task a bit easier, We’ve outlined a few important factors you should consider.

CLIMATE

Choosing the right roses for your particular climate zone is essential. In order for roses to grow healthy and bloom generously, they must be able to adjust to your climate.If you live in an area that is prone to cold winters, you would certainly want a rose that could survive during the off season. If your climate is mild you have many more choses to consider. Choosing the best rose varieties for your specific climate should mean fewer pesticides, fewer disease issues and an overall healthier garden.

COLOR

Color may seem trivial at first glance, but it’s usually an important factor to those that want to grow roses. Usually it is simply a matter of personal preference, but you may want to try creating a complimentary color palette for your rose garden.
The goal of choosing the best color roses for the landscape should be to compliment the color of the surrounding landscape. For instance, a spray of plain white tea roses can be striking against a dark red brick home, or an arrangement of pink roses can be the perfect compliment to a stone or marble entranceway. With so many colors of roses to choose from, it should be easy to find colors that compliment and enhance any decorating scheme.

HEIGHT

The size of the roses you choose is also very important. Consider the height of the rose at full growth. If the rose grows 15 feet tall, will it look unattractive in your garden? Remember, roses vary in size. While some roses may grow up to 8 feet, others can grow as high as 20 feet.Measure the area of your garden prior to choosing your roses. Compare your width and height measurements with roses you’d like to purchase. Your roses will need plenty of space to grow as well as room for exposure to the air.

SPACE

You need to consider the size of your garden space, so that you can ensure proper exposure to the air and other elements as well. Crowding too many plants into two smaller space won’t give you the results you desire.If you have only a small amount of space to dedicate to roses, you may want to grow miniature roses. These roses do not take up much space and they are easy to plant and care for.

FRAGRANCE

Old Garden Roses bloom for several months at a time, and have a strong and beautiful scent.
If however,certain fragrances would invoke an allergic reaction, you would certainly want to plant roses that have a softer fragrance than the others. Shrub roses are a good choose, they have less sent than some other types.

MAINTAINANCE

How much time will you be able to spend maintaining your roses? Are you one of those people who lives to be in the garden, or are you more of a low-maintenance gardener? There are several types of roses which are very high-maintenance. Although they’ll be dazzling in your garden, they’ll require a lot of your time. The classification known as “Modern Roses” are very stunning, long blooming, and highly fragrant; however, they are very high maintenance and are prone to disease. The rose classification known as “Old Garden Roses”, on the other hand, have been bred to be very disease-resistant and require less maintenance. “Old Garden Roses” bloom for several months at a time, and have a strong and beautiful scent. The bad news is that people with strong allergies to fragrances will have a terrible time around them. If that could be a problem for you, then consider any of the variety known as “shrub roses”. They are also disease-resistant and long blooming, but produce a mild scent.

OTHER FLOWERS IN GARDEN

You should also consider what other types of flowers or plants you plan to add to the garden. You want to add plants and flowers that will not create a damaging environment to your rose’s ecosystem. In other words, make sure any other plants are good neighbors. A popular trend in the world of landscaping is to use a variety of different plants and flowers in the landscape. Doing so not only makes for a vibrant garden, but it is thought to enhance the health of the soil as well. Fortunately, roses lend themselves well to this mixture, and roses can be a beautiful part of an overall landscape of plants and flowers.
The bottom line is while there are a wide variety of rose plants, do your homework and pick the plants that are best suited to your locale and your particular garden situation. But don’t be afraid, just forge ahead and soon you will be enjoying both the beauty and fragrance of your own rose plants.

With a little upfront planning and consideration you can have a lovely Rose Garden for years to come. Enjoy the journey and enjoy your garden!